Even as it awaits the outcome of a hedge fund's appeal of an earlier sanction, Japan's market regulator has taken after the hedge fund once again.

The country's Financial Services Agency on Friday said it would seek to impose a second fine for insider-trading against Japan Advisory, the Tokyo-based hedge fund that it moved to shut down in June. According to the regulator, Japan Advisory, led by an American, Edward Brogan, traded Elpida Memory securities after learning that it was about to hold a share and bond offering.

The FSA said that Japan Advisory figured out Elpida's plan without a direct tip-off, instead surmising what was about to happen by the fact that the company was left off of a sector report it received from a Nomura Holdings employee. Nomura leaves companies off of such lists when it plans a share offering within a week.

Nomura was not punished for the leak, which emerged during another investigation of leaking information to market players. But the FSA wants Japan Advisory to pay ¥120,000 (US$1,500).

Japan Advisory and FSA are already battling a fine and the regulator's proposed license revocation imposed in June. The hedge fund has been shut since then, but has appealed the allegation that it short-sold US$6.8 million in Nippon Sheet Glass shares two years ago.

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The testimony of former FBI Director James Comey came and went with more hype than harm to Donald Trump’s administration. The more important issue is whether Congress spent too much political capital to get comprehensive tax reform done by the end of 2017. The likelihood of significant policy changes is fleeting for the year. Some economists are even losing hope that tax reform will be completed by the midterm elections of 2018.